Stephen folded his arms and seemed to think for a moment. He then turned to Argus. "You, support her and follow us."

He next looked to Keir. "As for you, be a dear and investigate, will you? The gas may have dissipated by now, or not."

He continued up the stairs, with Enlil, Griff, and James (hopefully in tow).

A continued trek up the stairs would reveal the light to be growing dimmer, the further upward they ascended.. and the more a thick smell of decomposition began to flood their nostrils. Whatever was manifest here was not a pleasant thing.

The stairs did eventually branch off at the 'first' floor, complete with a hallway of dimmed doors that stretched on for legions of feet into the building. However, this same staircase apparently extended further and further up, past the ceiling of the lobby and beyond. The exact number of floors that were touched off on was unclear but there was no telling beyond walking.

"Hmm. We can't be sure about numbering. Perhaps we should head down this hallway, or continue up..?"

Keir had exited the apartment building by now, having left the doors open by a crack for future reentry. That had only been a moment or two ago.

James apparently had a change of heart shortly thereafter, and decided to head back downstairs for a moment, mentioning a word or two about "Checking on Keir". As he did, the chandelier, which Keir had been glancing, potentially suspiciously, at earlier, cracked and crashed down onto the Reploid in a spectacular smash that opened up everyone's eardrums.

Argus, who had been attempting to assist Intemera in a non-perverted fashion, nearly dropped his charge in surprise. Intemera simply glanced down and over towards the spectacle, down and over past the stairs. Yes, there was a handy viewing space just for looking back into the lobby, however narrow.

Keir had not returned yet.

Stephen frowned and paused in his ascent, looking back to Enlil to see what her result had been.

Enlil had gone to the closest door, the door on their right side of the hallway on this floor, and it opened. The numbers were there, but they were in an obscure Infinity-styled text. Perfect for James or Rei translation, shame neither of them were present or conscious.

The reek of decomposed flesh/fur/food began to waft into the hallway outside as the door remained open. It was Enlil's call to tolerate the rank odor that overpowered the musty scent of the building around them.

Stephen simply nodded, pondering to stay or check on the situation below. He also pondered just what the hell was taking Keir so long.

Griff, Argus, and Intemera were on their own here.

~

As Enlil entered the corridor to the apartment further inside, she noted that the dim light from outside swiftly retreated, leaving her within a dark, foul-smelling dwelling. She could feel out the bare structure of the walls and floor around her, but she was finding it somewhat difficult to identify the area around her based on sight alone, though the smell was growing worse.

At least, by now, she was entering a more open area in this new apartment. What now?

~

As Keir exited, he would find himself surrounded by the night air and nothing more. While the city had not become any more desirable during their time inside, whatever gas had been present was suspiciously gone.

There came the sound of a crashing through the doors that had been left open a crack. Something had fallen. Something glassy. That much was evident.

At the same time, a small figure of some sort dashed out of the alleyway to his side, carrying what appeared to be a trash can of some sort, and ran off into the distance. The small figure had been wearing a trench coat, and looked rather out of place. Worse than that was the smell that followed. Something vaguely inoffensive, and unidentifiable.. yet something that was definitely there. There was not enough of the smell to bring about any major thoughts on it... possibly.

Walking further in, Enlil stretchs out her wings a bit, letting them feel for the walls and any obstacles, and perhaps a lightswitch, should her feathers brush over one. Liking this less and less, the angel continues inward. Had she imagined that light?

There was no response, and no apparent lightswitch. Her fingers did run over what may have been a spot of mildew, but it was only a slight spot. Potentially unusual...

Her wings were free of walls by now, and were allowed to unfold into a larger area of some sort. Possibly a living room...

The odor seemed strongest here... but, unusually, the stench seemed to come from all side of this room... as if there was something all over this room that was causing this smell.

It could have brought about some thoughtful pondering before what appeared to be a disheveled humanoid wrapped in cloths stepped towards her, brandishing a primitive flashlight and a sharpened stake of wood. This humanoid's eyes flashed with a suspicious paranoia, intertwined with a streak of insanity... and its mouth moved for a moment, uttering some term Enlil could not deceipher.

With that, the humanoid lunged (somewhat slowly) at her with the stake.

The humanoid slowed down and seemed to pause, as if in some form of recognition. While Enlil could tell that the being had calmed down slightly, she could also tell that this being had no way of responding - apparently, it had no knowledge of telepathy.

Thank you, she sends to it, while trying to get a sense of it's surface thoughts, for a reply, Just open your mind a little, so I may understand you. Are you alright, I'm sorry if I broke into your home.

Enlil nodded in understanding. Are you able to write at all? She inquired.

She scanned his aura more closely now. Now she sought to find whether or not the creature had any sort of true aura-based, or possibly even soul-based deficiencies. Creatures that could not respond to telepathy were a rarity.

The being nodded slowly, if a bit unsurely. He/she/it did not seem to have any sort of writing medium at hand, however.

At first glance, its aura and soul seemed normal. However, further scanning seemed to reveal some sort of forced inhibition. Something within the mind was preventing the use of telepathy. Something artificial. Something definitely out of place.

The humanoid did wave its flashlight around. All over the walls, floor, and ceiling were the spectacle of some sort of battle. What appeared to be Infinity soldiers of some kind, albeit under a different set of tags and colorations lay literally scattered across the rooms. A hand there, a foot here, an eye over yonder.

Stephen still had a frown on his face. Enlil was taking an unusually large amount of time. Something may have happened...

"Are you up to checking another one of these rooms? Or would you rather check on Enlil, or one of the others?" The dragonoid was obviously a bit conflicted, as he was trying to decide what to do next...

For a moment, Enlil was quiet. She did not want to tjhik about the atrocity here, telling herself there was nothing she could do to change it. How many people had died here? Was this the same thing that had gotten the man at the desk?

Did...did you do this? she telepaths, trying to recover her composure. She also turned her formidable astral senses to finding out all she could about what was blocking the man's mental processes, looking especially for methods similiar to that of the drives that Infinity had used before.

After the entire trip there, and past experiances with so called "Gladiators", Griff had began to doubt Intemera's ability to keep herself alive. He followed a bit behind her, not trying to act as if he was doing it on purpose.

Keir made his way outside, taking care not to gulp down any of that polluted and possibly poisoned air moreso than he would have to. Hearing a noise back within the apartments, he half-considered turning back, but alas, he is distracted as a trenchcoated midget runs past him, carrying a trash can. Figuring this small creature may know something about something, Keir decides to be a sociable guy and speak. Hopefully this odd stranger knows Common.

Intemera's attempt to open the door succeeded. It swung open, revealing a short but well-lit entrance hallway. The walls on each side of this hallway were stained sporadically with an unknown green substance. The odor of decomposition wafted into her nose as she stood there.

The door at the end of the hallway had no doorknob. It was, however, open a crack. This meant that she could likely approach it and push it open without trouble.

Griff behind her saw about the same image, without the smell, due to his distance.

~

The humanoid paused for a moment, as if trying to come up with a way to appropriately answer Enlil's question. It then shrugged, and projected the event itself, from its viewpoint, into her mind.

From what Enlil could deceipher, these soldiers had entered the room by force. They had shot at the humanoid, and their bullets had been thrown aside. Utilizing what Enlil could presume to be telepathic power, the soldiers had been torn apart before they could fire again.

Further, from what the angel could deceipher of the humanoid's emotions, it felt little guilt for what it had done. There was something numb about the way it perceived what had happened, something emotionless.

Looking into the issue of what inhibited telepathic processes revealed a device, embedded in the humanoid's brain, that seemed akin to a soul drive. However, only half of its power was apparently active. As opposed to completely controlling the humanoid, certain mental fuctions were inhibited. Apparently, though, that had not been enough for these soldiers.

~

Stephen and Argus remained alone, outside of the doors. That is, until the floor beneath Argus apparently failed to hold itself intact and collapsed. This left Argus without much time to react, and caused him to fall to an unknown darkness below.

Stephen obviously heard this. Griff would, as well. It was Intemera's discretion whether she would pay more attention to the door ahead of her or to the slight noise behind her.

Stephen turned and watched the scene, listening for a 'crash' of some sort. There was none.

The undead dragonoid swore once again and looked back to Griff and/or Intemera for reaction. Enlil was too far gone to talk with by now.

~

Keir's efforts to avoid the potentially noxious gas were not in vain, as most of it had faded, leaving the (relatively) breathable air of the city.

His attempt to socialize with the mysterious midget was ignored. It ran too quickly for him to get a better look. It did drop something on the ground, however: a small scrap of paper.

The humanoid paused again, before repeating the same process of mental projecting.

Apparently this humanoid had been only one of thousands to be subject to this same treatment. Shortly after the initial implant, an 'upgrade' of sorts was to be added on. However, while many others had either resisted (and were killed) or went along with the process, this one had stayed home.

Soldiers were sent out for this creature. The result was splayed all over the room.

While Enlil had never know Infinity to be a kind and caring group, even this measure seemed a bit extreme. This faction seemed a bit.. severe.

~

Intemera's peeking revealed what appeared to be a well-lit, (red) carpeted floor inside. The hint of fingers existed at the edge of her sight. These fingers appeared to be splattered with the same color as the carpet.

However, this is all she could see from this viewpoint. She would have to open the door to see more.

~

Keir was now in possession of 1x Infinity sheet. What he did now was his discretion, though there had been a rather loud noise emnating from the apartment building behind him.

Argus grimaced some as he tried to get a decent look of his surroundings but had little luck. He coughed a bit standing himself upright, as doing so hearing someone nearby. "Eh... someone there?" The demon-half squinted and continued to look around as he placed a hand on the hilt of his blade.